Hottest week ever: BBC News Review

The hottest week ever recorded.

What does this mean for the planet?

This is News Review from

BBC Learning English. I'm Beth.

And I'm Phil. Make sure you watch to the end

to learn the vocabulary

you need to talk about this story. And remember to subscribe

to our channel, like this video and try the quiz on our website.

Now, the story.

Hotter weather has never been recorded. The UN

says the first week of July had the highest average global temperature

ever measured. This could have significant effects on the planet.

Hurricanes, tropical cyclones, drought

and heavy rain could all become more likely as a result.

You've been looking at the headlines.

What's the vocabulary?

We have: just getting started,

uncharted territory and scorches.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English

Let's have a look at

our first headline.

This is from The Hill.

We're experiencing Earth's hottest weather

in 120,000 years,

and it's just getting started. So, the Earth is

at the warmest it's been in 120,000 years.

That's since before the last Ice Age. Now, the expression

we're looking at is 'just getting started'.

Phil, we've just got started with this programme.

Is that what are we talking about here?

Well, when we use 'just getting started' in this way,

what we really mean

is that there is a lot to come, and in the case of this story,

it's all negative.

Yes, this article is saying

that while the current high temperatures are bad news,

they're only going to get worse,

much worse. In fact, they're just getting started.

Now, we can use this as well for positive things as well.

So, for example, we've got a lot of things we can tell you about English

and we're just getting started.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. This is from

the Guardian. 'Uncharted territory:'

UN declares first week of July world's hottest

ever recorded.

Now, we're going to look at the expression 'uncharted territory'.

That makes me think of pirates,

explorers, the ocean...

Well, pirates, explorers in the ocean,

anyone like that – they all use charts, which are like maps,

so 'uncharted territory',

that means it's not on any maps.

It is a place that

no one's been to before,

or at least they haven't made a map of it yet.

And here, it's a metaphor.

So, in terms of the weather,

we are seeing things that we've never seen

before – we're in 'uncharted territory'.

That means there's no maps

or anything to tell us what to do next.

We can use this to talk about anything

we haven't worked out how to deal with yet.

So, when we think about people using AI

to cheat in exams, we're in 'uncharted territory'.

That's right. OK, let's look at that again

Next headline please. This is from Al Jazeera.

Record-breaking heat scorches communities around the world.

Now, this headline is from an article that focuses on the impact

of these high temperatures. The word

we're looking at is 'scorch'.

That's all about heat, right?

Yes, it is. Now, for an example,

I ironed a shirt this morning, but I left the iron on it for too long

and it burnt a mark on the shirt.

It's a scorch mark.

If you scorch something, you burn the surface of something with extreme heat.

You're obviously not wearing that shirt then! The headline is talking

about the effects of extreme heat

on people living in different places around the world,

and it doesn't literally mean that the people are being burnt,

but it is definitely having a negative impact on them.

Now, another metaphorical use of 'scorch' is to criticise strongly,

so people can be damaged by heat or people can be scorched by criticism.

Well, I hope we don't get scorched in the comments

in this episode of News Review.

OK. Let's look at that again.

We've had: just getting started – there's more to come.

Uncharted territory – something not experienced before,

and scorches – damages with heat.

Now, if you want to learn more about last year's heatwave

which affected many parts of the world, click on this video.

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Thanks for watching, see you next time

Bye!